The realism of confidence judgments of statements in the Cognitive and Standard Interviews

The Cognitive Interview (CI) is a well-researched interview method and the research results show that CI, compared with more conventional interview styles, enhances witnesses’ memory. However, not much research has been done on the question of how CI affects the realism of eyewitnesses’ judgments of confidence in the veracity of their interview statements. In a previous study (Granhag, Jonsson & Allwood, Psychology, Crime & Law, in press) we investigated the realism of witnesses’ confidence judgments of their own answers to two-alternative questions. These questions were produced by the researchers to test the witnesses’ retention of a filmed kidnapping. Our results showed that, in this context, the CI does not appear to affect the... (More)

The Cognitive Interview (CI) is a well-researched interview method and the research results show that CI, compared with more conventional interview styles, enhances witnesses’ memory. However, not much research has been done on the question of how CI affects the realism of eyewitnesses’ judgments of confidence in the veracity of their interview statements. In a previous study (Granhag, Jonsson & Allwood, Psychology, Crime & Law, in press) we investigated the realism of witnesses’ confidence judgments of their own answers to two-alternative questions. These questions were produced by the researchers to test the witnesses’ retention of a filmed kidnapping. Our results showed that, in this context, the CI does not appear to affect the realism in witnesses’ confidence, and not to inflate confidence in erroneous recall, compared to a Standard Interview (SI). In the present study our ambition was to conduct an ecologically more valid study of the realism of witnesses’ confidence judgments. Again, the CI was compared with a SI. The witnesses (n= 58) returned about two weeks after having been interviewed about their memories of the filmed kidnapping and were, at return, presented with transcribed versions of parts of their interview statements. These were confidence judged by the witnesses. The witnesses also gave an overall judgment of how many of all answered questions they had answered correctly (i.e., a frequency judgment). In our presentation, results will be presented regarding the realism of the witnesses’ confidence and frequency judgments in this, compared to our previous research, more ecologically valid study. (Less)

@misc{96417166-a90a-4f77-a544-c5421ca9c2b4,
abstract = {The Cognitive Interview (CI) is a well-researched interview method and the research results show that CI, compared with more conventional interview styles, enhances witnesses’ memory. However, not much research has been done on the question of how CI affects the realism of eyewitnesses’ judgments of confidence in the veracity of their interview statements. In a previous study (Granhag, Jonsson &amp; Allwood, Psychology, Crime &amp; Law, in press) we investigated the realism of witnesses’ confidence judgments of their own answers to two-alternative questions. These questions were produced by the researchers to test the witnesses’ retention of a filmed kidnapping. Our results showed that, in this context, the CI does not appear to affect the realism in witnesses’ confidence, and not to inflate confidence in erroneous recall, compared to a Standard Interview (SI). In the present study our ambition was to conduct an ecologically more valid study of the realism of witnesses’ confidence judgments. Again, the CI was compared with a SI. The witnesses (n= 58) returned about two weeks after having been interviewed about their memories of the filmed kidnapping and were, at return, presented with transcribed versions of parts of their interview statements. These were confidence judged by the witnesses. The witnesses also gave an overall judgment of how many of all answered questions they had answered correctly (i.e., a frequency judgment). In our presentation, results will be presented regarding the realism of the witnesses’ confidence and frequency judgments in this, compared to our previous research, more ecologically valid study.},
author = {Allwood, Carl Martin and Granhag, Pär Anders and Ask, Karl},
language = {eng},
pages = {43--43},
title = {The realism of confidence judgments of statements in the Cognitive and Standard Interviews},
year = {2003},
}